1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component such as a semiconductor device including a plurality of thin-film circuit elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known Japanese Patent No. 3465617 disclosing a semiconductor device configured in a manner that a thin-film circuit element is integrally formed on a semiconductor substrate formed with an integrated circuit. The semiconductor device described in the foregoing known Publication includes a first insulating film formed on the semiconductor substrate formed with an integrated circuit, a ground layer partially formed on the first insulating film, and a second insulating film formed on the ground layer and the first insulating film. A plurality of ground connection pads are electrically connected to the ground layer and the thin-film circuit element is formed on the second insulating film. A ground columnar electrode and a conducting columnar electrode are formed on the ground connection pad and the thin-film circuit element, respectively. A sealing film is formed around the ground and conducting columnar electrodes so that its upper surface is flush with the upper surfaces of ground and conducting columnar electrodes.
The foregoing conventional semiconductor device has the following problem. One thin-film circuit element is formed on the semiconductor substrate; for this reason, packaging density is low. As shown in FIG. 9 of the foregoing patent Publication, the following problem further arises when the thin-film circuit element is a thin-film capacitive element. Namely, the thin-film capacitive element comprises a bottom electrode, an insulating film and a top electrode, which are successively stacked on the second insulating film formed on the ground layer and the first insulating film. Thus, the layer structure of the thin-film capacitive element including the ground layer is complicated. Specifically, five layers, that is, the ground layer, the second insulating film, the bottom electrode, the insulating film and the top electrode, must be formed. As a result, the number of layers increases, and simultaneously, the number of manufacturing processes increases.